Steve Cooper has now been approached, despite months of conjecture that he may succeed Roy Hodgson as Crystal Palace manager.
The 44-year-old is not yet interested in a post at Selhurst Park, though, despite the club’s ambition to hire him right away. Hodgson is under a lot of criticism from the supporters following a poor run of play that has left an injured Palace team in 14th place.
In addition to losing both domestic cups and having no established style of play, Palace has only won four of their previous 17 games. Hodgson has also been held accountable for Michael Olise’s long-term injury.
Steve Cooper is hesitant to play Crystal Palace
According to a report from Football Insider, Palace is now prepared to fire Hodgson and want to name Cooper as their top choice to take his place.
They now have a dilemma, though, since Cooper is reluctant to join Palace in their current capacity.
According to the article, Cooper would rather wait until the summer to take a new position anywhere after leaving Nottingham Forest, preferring to use the entire preseason to put his ideas into practice and become settled at the team.
Nowadays, Crystal Palace is in a self-inflicted crisis.
After much deliberation, the Palace administration has finally acknowledged that Hodgson is not the best player to guide the team forward this season. However, the club took much too long to reach this decision.
The team has played poorly from the start of the season, and Hodgson’s handling of the younger players and his alleged disobedience of medical advice about player wellbeing have caused Palace to regress even more.
If Palace had fired him earlier in the season, they might have been able to find a new head coach in time to save this season. In addition to losing a number of important players, Palace is currently in danger of relegation, and the fan base’s attitude has never been worse in recent memory.
In the midst of this crisis, it doesn’t seem likely that a new coach will want to start a long-term project at the team. Even if Cooper is still interested at the end of the season, there won’t be a quick fix even if Hodgson is fired.
